Gone
by Danni Lea
Summary: They knew something was missing, or more accurately someone. A person they could only half remember. And it was driving Hayner nuts that he couldn't even remember his blonde-haired blue- eyed best friend.
1. The Kid Whose Name Begins With a R

**Gone Chapter I – The Kid who's Name Begins With an "R"**

Summary: _They knew something was missing, or more accurately someone. A person they could only half remember. And it was driving Hayner nuts that he couldn't even remember his blonde-haired blue- eyed best friend._

**A/N: **…Don't ask…just don't. I have no idea where on earth this came from. I was playing Final Fantasy X-2 and suddenly _this _popped into my head.

_**DISCLAIMER:**_

_Oh yes. I totally own Kingdom Hearts. That's why I'm a high school student who writes fanfiction._

_

* * *

_

_Hayner was fuming. He couldn't believe they were being framed for something like this! He had an attitude problem, he'd admit that readily, but he _was not a thief! _He couldn't believe that the town thought he, R-, Olette, and Pence _**- R-? Who the heck is that? -** _had stolen their photos! _**-Wait…when had that happened!-** _He was so mad it took R- awhile to calm him down, and once they had started looking for the picture thief, their own photo had been stolen too (he wasn't quite so mad about the word)! It turned out Seifer hadn't done it either, but he had one of his photos stolen as well._

_He deserved it as far as Hayner was concerned._

_But R- being R- didn't think so._

_They we're about to set off when all of a sudden Pence's camera was stolen and R- took off after what he thought had taken it (although no one else could see it). When they caught up to R- he had a weird look on his face and was standing there staring at the photos that were laying scattered on the ground in front of the Old Mansion._

_Oh yeah, they could say photo again._

_

* * *

_

_He was ranting about how the four __**-**_**Four? There are only three of us, right? -**_ of them hadn't gone to the beach all summer. Olette and Pence, he could tell, were paying some attention to him, while R- just spaced out; he was starting to worry about his best friend. Ever since the picture thief incident he'd been spacing out a lot more. At some point in his spiel however, it seemed that his friend had snapped out of it and reminded him that they were broke. So, naturally, Hayner said he had it covered. _

_By that he meant he and his friends were getting odd jobs around Twilight Town._

R- stuck closer to their Usual Spot than the rest of them, delivering mail and helping some guy move his stuff into a garage up the hill. _Together the four _**–Three, some part of his mind shouted-** _made 5,000 munny. They were about to go into the station when R- tripped. They waited for him, but when Hayner ordered the tickets and turned to R- expectantly, he came up empty handed._

"_That guy must have stolen it!"_

"_What guy?" Had R- lost it?_

"_That guy that was by me when I tripped!"_

"_But, R-," started Olette, obviously concerned for the mental stability of their spiky haired friend. "Nobody was there." _**(1) **_By that point, R- looked very confused and worried._

_Hayner's worry for his best friend spiked._

_

* * *

_

_Later, they were all on the clock tower eating sea-salt ice-cream. Hayner had suggested it since they had missed they're trip to the beach. He knew sea-salt was R-'s favorite flavor. He had hoped it would cheer him up, but instead he spaced out again. He never knew R-'s cerulean blue eyes could look so distant._

_That was when he muttered the oddest sentence ever._

_"Can you feel Sora?"_

_That fact that he was talking to himself pushed the worry meter high enough to really concern Hayner._

* * *

Hayner sat up in bed with a start. He furrowed his eyebrows and stared out his window. '_What was with those dreams?' _That one thought brought the blonde-haired boy from his dreams to the forefront of his mind in no time at all. He was absolutely positive that he had never seen the boy before. _'Although, he _does _look a lot like Sora… Maybe they're related?'_ Somehow he knew that wasn't it. Hayner was a lot of things, and he knew he wasn't exactly the brightest guy around, but he knew something was definitely wrong.

It was time consult Olette and Pence…

* * *

The three of them met at the Usual Spot first thing, just like every day. Everything was exactly as they had left it the previous day-the dartboard, couch, chairs, posters-yet no one could shake the hair raising feeling that something was missing-or, more accurately, _someone_. If his dreams meant anything, Hayner knew exactly who it was; that blonde-haired Sora-lookalike whose name began with an 'R'.

He stared at his two closest friends and some part of his mind noted they had the same subdued air he did. Hayner wasn't exactly sure as to where to start. Luckily for him, however, he didn't have to.

"Did anyone else have any weird dreams last night?" Hayner nearly felt like kissing his technology-inclined friend.

"Yeah," Olette answered, while Hayner nodded.

"They were about some kid whose name began with an 'R'." Olette and Pence nodded in agreement at Hayner's statement.

Olette decided to throw in her own two cents, "He looked a lot like Sora."

"Except, he's blonde-and awesome at Struggle," Hayner started when the words left his mouth. How did he know that?

"How did you know that, Hayner?" Hayner could only shake his head at Pence. He really didn't know, but he felt that it was important.

Not knowing who this kid was who had appeared in their dreams, drove Hayner up the wall. He didn't know who the heck the kid was, but he also couldn't shake the feeling that he knew the kid and that the kid knew him, too. Hayner wasn't one for deep philosophical thoughts, Olette and Pence could attest to that, but he felt that there was something important missing in his small group of friends. He'd known Pence and Olette all his life and he was almost positive there'd never been a fourth person in their group. Vivi had come close, but for whatever reason, he had decided he liked Sefier and his gang more.

But this kid…

Call him crazy, but right then and there, Hayner decided he was going to figure out who this kid was. On some weird unconscious level that Olette would swear was his heart, (he didn't do sappy stuff like that) he knew this blonde-haired, blue-eyed kid was important.

He just _knew _it.

* * *

End.

**1 - **I had used the manga to refernce this part because my PS2 was being held captive at the time I wrote this scene.

"Because on some weird unconscious level that Olette would swear was his heart (he didn't do sappy stuff like that) he knew this blonde-haired blue-eyed kid was important." My Beta and I want to know what you think of the part of the sentence in parenthesis. We really couldn't agree on wording, so give us some friendly advice! :)


	2. Kairi

**Gone – Chapter II - Kairi**

**A/N: **Special thanks to xXxSoulKeeperxXx for all the wonderful ideas and making this chapter possible. And for being the muse for this. And just about the rest of the story.

**DISCLAIMER: **I'm a High School student in America. How could I possibly own Kingdom Hearts?

**EDIT (10/15/10): **Fixed an over usage of the word nuts, and a few funky sentences.

* * *

"_Ugh. I hate detention."_

"_Then you shouldn't have called Mrs. Dodds an old hag."_

"_Some best friend you are Ro-!"_

"_Hey!"_

* * *

"_Ro-! What happened!"_

"_Nothing."_

"_Liar!"_

"_Guys, I'm-"_

"_We're going to the hospital Ro-!"_

* * *

"_Woah!"_

"_That looked like it hurt, Ro-"_

"_Shut up, Hayner."_

"_Hey, I'm not the guy who keeps falling off his skateboard."_

"_Hayner?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Shut up."_

* * *

"_Hayner, Ro-, that's disgusting!"_

"_What?"_

"_Huh?"_

"_Honestly! Why would you two even think of doing something like that?"_

"_Aww. C'mon 'Lette. S'not that bad!"_

"_Yeah! It's not like we're eating the gum under the seats you know."_

"_But…ugh! I give up!"_

* * *

"_You two are idiots."_

"_Hey!"_

"_I'm serious! Look at you! You're soaked! Pence! Back me up!"_

"_Uh…"_

"_Aww, come on Olette it's not that bad."_

"_I don't want to hear it from you Ro-."_

"_Ha! Ro- got told!"_

"_I don't want to hear from you either Hayner!"_

"_What!"_

* * *

Hayner shot up in his bed. _More dreams…_

The hotheaded blonde frowned. The dreams were confusing and jumped times. Sometimes he was all the way back in elementary school, others were just last year, and a lot were from the last week of summer.

"_Can you feel Sora?"_

And their new friend Sora was somehow involved.

Hayner, in all the rationale and logic of any sixteen year old boy, took out his frustrations by throwing his pillow against the wall.

In less than hour, Hayner was showered, dressed, and pacing the Usual Spot. Frowning he walked over to the wall where they had posted a paper with one letter on it: R. Picking up the pencil, he wrote one more next to it: O.

_Ro…Ro…how many names could possibly start with Ro?_

Three hours later, Hayner and company knew exactly how many names in the most current dictionary started with Ro. And none of them were the one they were looking for. They didn't know how they knew that, but the point was they did.

After the long and tiring search Hayner finally exploded, "How hard is it to find a _name!"_

"If we had more letters, we'd have better luck. We could use the internet then," Olette answered.

"But we don't. All we know is Ro. And that the kid's a boy," Pence added.

Hayner jumped up and started pacing their clumped club house. So far, the only things they knew were the first to two letters of the kid's name, and his hair an eye color. All of them had dreams that revealed memories of them with the boy from early than elementary school, but for whatever reason, Hayner's tended to stretch back to the farthest. From this, the trio had concluded that of the three of them, Hayner had two of known him the longest. Olette though they had to of been pretty close, since Hayner and the boy where constantly and consistently in trouble.

Hayner couldn't _believe _that he didn't even remember his name! They had learned to ride skateboards together, trained for the Struggle, stood up to Seifer, gotten detentions, shared lunches, stood down bullies when they picked on Olette or Pence, or each other. They shared ice cream on top of the clock tower, had gotten odd jobs together to raise money for the beach during summers, and rushed summer projects and papers.

So why couldn't remember his best friend's name!

_Hey wait a second…_

"He was my best friend." Olette and Pence looked at Hayner like he'd gone nuts. But he knew he had hit the right point. The memories were connecting easier, and he was that much closer to remember the half-remembered blonde's name. He remembered the (few) times his blue-eyed friend had cried, how short tempered he was, and how arrogant he could get.

But, above all that, the blonde had cared for his friends more than anything in the world. If he managed to be even a second late to anything he felt so guilty, he'd look like a kicked puppy. If he didn't have the munny to pay for the ice cream on his turn he'd apologize all day until Hayner finally managed to get him to shut up.

Hayner opened his mouth to begin sharing his epiphany with his friends when a black hole opened in the wall and out flew a dog and a girl.

* * *

"What a romantic story!"

Kairi smiled and nodded.

After the red head had flown out of the wall, she had shared in detail, her story. Losing her heart, Sora's sacrifice so she could regain it, saying goodbye…and waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Waiting until she was tired of nothing but waiting. For whatever reason, it reminded Hayner of his half-remembered best friend. Maybe they'd been subconsciously waiting for their friend to come home too.

"If you stick around, Sora's bound to show up," Pence told the red head.

"Yeah, he said he's coming back," the local attitude problem added.

"Okay!"

Hayner wanted to question Kairi about his half remembered friend, because there was always a chance, no matter how small, that, maybe, just maybe, she would know _something._ And somehow maybe she would know how they could remember him completely.

"What took you so long Kairi?"

Everyone turned to source of the voice. Another black hole had opened in the wall and out stepped another red head. The difference between this red head and Kairi though, was that he gave Hayner a really _really_ bad feeling.

"I tell ya Kairi, you've really got guts, jumping into the Darkness like that."

Hayner couldn't tell you exactly why he tried to hit the guy as hard as he could even though on some instinctive level he knew he couldn't, and he couldn't tell you why Pence did either. Maybe it was because Kairi had through the exact same thing they had, or maybe it was because she was their friend and Sora's friend. Either way, Hayner knew he wasn't going to let this get Kairi without a fight.

"Let go! Let go of me!"

By the time Hayner was back up off the ground and ready to swing again, Kairi and the unknown red head was gone.

He punched the wall instead.

* * *

That night as Hayner lay in bed, he though over the confrontation with the red head again and again.

It drove him up the wall that he couldn't stop the guy from taking Kairi –_ Now another one of my friends are missing!_- but it also drove Hayner absolutely insane that he couldn't even remember his blonde haired, blue eyed best friend.


	3. Roxas

**Gone Chapter III – Roxas**

_**A/N: **_Since I'm too impatient to wait to get a PSP and BBS, I watch walkthroughs on YouTube. Anyone else cry with Ven's ending? Or Terra's and Aqua's? The absolute ending and the secret ending made me cry. T.T

Although, it makes me twice as impatient and excited for Kingdom Hearts III. Sora really is the Key that connects everything isn't he?

**EDIT (12.16.10): Uploaded the wrong document. Here's the BETA'd version, thanks to NightlyRains and ItsOnlyForever.**

* * *

"_Hi!"_

"_Huh? Oh…um…hi."_

"_I'm Hayner. Who're you?"_

"_Roxas…"_

"_Well, why are you by yourself Roxas?" The only response from the blonde on the swing next to him was a shrug. Hayner frowned. The other boy looked so lonely. Why did he look like that?_

"_Do you have any friends?"_

"_Not really…" His frown deepened. No friends? Everyone should have friends!_

"_Well, now you do!"_

"_Wha-?"_

"I'm _your friend, Roxas!" For a few minutes the other blonde could only gape, and slowly, he smiled. Hayner decided he really liked it when Roxas smiled._

* * *

_Hayner dropped the skateboards in front of his dozing friend. With a start Roxas shot up from the bench he was laying on and asked, "Hayner, what are you doing?"_

"_Not me. Us. We're going to learn to ride skateboards."_

"_Uh-huh." Roxas tone was disbelieving and slightly amused._

"_What? You're not sacred are you, Rox?"_

"_Scared? No way!"_

_By this point both blondes were grinning in a way that usually had Olette going for her first aid kit. Roxas hopped off the bench, grabbed the white and black board and over his shoulder he said, "I bet by the end of the day I'll be better than you."_

_Hayner snorted. "Yeah, right!"_

_Roxas put the board on the ground and pushed off. For a few seconds he seemed to be doing pretty well, until he found himself unable to turn or stop. With a crash he fell off the skateboard and rolled across the ground. Hayner, as all best friends would, burst out laughing at the blue eyed pre-teen. Roxas just gritted his teeth and got up and back on the board. Each time he got back on he got a little bit better; but he kept falling too…_

"_Woah!" Roxas fell backwards off the board and landed hard on his back._

_Snickering, Hayner said, "That looked like it hurt, Roxas."_

_Roxas glared. "Shut up, Hayner."_

_Grinning, the other blonde shrugged. "Hey, I'm not the guy who keeps falling off his skateboard."_

"_Hayner?"_

"_Yeah?"_

_"Shut up."_

* * *

_Olette stared down at her two blonde friends. "You two are idiots."_

From his position in the water, Hayner gave her an indignant look. "Hey!"

"_I'm serious! Look at you two! You're soaked! Pence, back me up!"_

"_Uh…" The black haired teen looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him up before he got anywhere near the other three._

_Roxas gave Olette a small smile and said, "Aww, come on Olette. It's not that bad."_

_Their female companion turned her piercing gaze to him. "I don't want to hear it from you, Roxas!"_

_Hayner burst out laughing. "Ha! Roxas got told!"_

_The gaze then shifted to the second blonde. "I don't want to hear it from you either, Hayner!"_

"_What!"_

"_I had the weirdest dream last night."_

_Hayner looked over at his best friend. "Yeah?"_

"_So strange…"_

"_What was it about?"_

"_It...I...um…well…"_

_Grinning from ear to ear with a mischievous gleam his brown eyes, Hayner said, "Oh _I _get it. It was a _girl_, wasn't it Roxas?"_

"_What! No!"_

"_Oh sure. I get it; you don't want to talk about it."_

"_Hayner!"_

* * *

Groggily, Hayner rolled away from the light shining in his eyes. He knew he and the gang had to look for Kairi today, but he didn't want to get up yet. It was Saturday. He and Roxas –

Wait…

_Roxas! _With a jolt, Hayner shot out of bed and was showered, dressed, and fed in record time. With a quick "bye!" to his parents, he was out the door and racing towards the Usual Spot. He had to talk to Olette and Pence!

* * *

Crashing through the gate and sheet that covered the entrance, Hayner shouted, _"I know his name!"_

Startled, Pence and Olette looked up at the brown eyed teen. They had been looking over a map of the town trying to decide where to start looking for Kairi. Olette began to question Hayner, but instead of responding he walked over to the sheet with RO written on it. He finished the name by adding XAS.

"Roxas," Olette said the name, rolling it over her tongue and through her memory. Pence repeated it too.

"I can remember him almost completely too. I mean, there's a few jumps but…" Hayner trailed off at the understanding looks in his friends eyes.

"He's there," Pence said.

Hayner nodded in agreement. "He's there."

* * *

"Any luck by the mansion?"

"Sorry Hayner, nothing."

"Olette?"

"No luck at the station either. You?"

"Nothing at the Tram."

Together the three friends sighed. After discussing the dreams and finally remembering Roxas, they decided to look for clues to both him and Kairi. They had split up and taken different parts of the tows. Hayner had Tram Common, Olette had the station, and Pence had the woods and Mansion. Tomorrow they were going to tackle the rest of the Market Street, and try to find a way inside the mansion to investigate. After that they were going to (reluctantly) recruit Seifer and his gang. Because, Olette thought, they might notice something they hadn't.

"Hey guys?" Olette and Hayner turned to their black haired friend.

"Yeah?"

He seemed hesitant in answering. "I think there might be another Twilight Town."

Hayner frowned at Pence. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're remembering a kid that's never lived here; not to mention all those weird things that happened during the last week of summer. Sora included. So, if there is another Twilight Town, what if…" Pence trailed off, afraid to finish the thought. If he was wrong, they would have gotten their hopes up for nothing. More than anything, Pence didn't want to get his or the other's hopes up only to crash.

Hayner, however, had picked up on his thought and loudly exclaimed, "What if Roxas and Kairi are in the other Twilight Town?"

Olette's green eyes lit up at the thought and Pence still looked unsure. Walking to the local attitude problem, he said "Where could the other Twilight Town be though?" The three of them exchanged looks. They hadn't really even thought of that but… It had given them hope. Hope that they would find their two missing friends, hope that Roxas wasn't just a figment of their teenage imaginations and the blue-eyed teen was real. That the missing place in their group would be back.

Invisioning his best friend, Roxas, and their new friend, Kairi, Hayner muttered, "We'll find them."

* * *

I have this completely outlined now. I've jsut got to find the outline. Heh heh. Um...don't kill me? Please?

-runs from angry readers-


End file.
